||Attention, Attention. The following personnel please report to the Observation Deck. Attention, Attention. The following personnel please report to the Observation Deck
( Read more... )
John's eyes went wide. He managed to scramble out of the way, if only barely, as a literal axe murderer came swinging for his blood out of nowhere. Was this the guy responsible? Or some crew that thought he was one of the bad guys or trying to protect himself? Either way, John wasn't sticking around to get into twenty questions about it -- he bolted to the side, scrambled and nearly slipped on the floor, and managed to duck around one of the chairs, trying to put it between him and Axe Guy.
Out of the corner of his eye he caught Jamie heading toward them with what looked like a big knife in his hand. While it was nice to have some backup, somehow he didn't think a Scot waving around a damn weapon was going to make this guy back down. John aimed Winona at his attacker as he weaved around the chair, hoping he'd fall for the bluff. Winona didn't have to work, but she did look like she meant business.
"Stand down! We're here to help, okay?" Good going, Crichton. Nice job sounding all-business. He sounded more in charge than he felt, even as he kept a nervous eye on the fire axe.
The man didn't seem to notice Jamie at all, or even the words that John was saying to him. However, his aim wasn't particularly good and, wild-eyed, he swung wide, missing John entirely and embedding the axe in some old stored electronic equipment instead.
"I'm not going to let you!" he screeched, straining to pry the axe loose again. "I'm not gonna let you do your tests!"
The theory was that faced with two people with weapons, the man'd do the sensible thing and stand down. However, it was obvious that he was about to do no such thing, and they'd have to come up with some other solution - and quickly, before the man got the axe free.
With a grimace, Jamie shoved the knife back in its sheath and ran full-tilt across the room to leap at the man and, with luck, knock him to the ground and hold him there long enough to find some way to subdue him.
Okay, note to self: Jamie was crap at trying to make someone freaking out back down.
John had no choice but to go for the axe while Jamie decided to go full-on NFL on the crewman. He threw his own weight at the guy, debated at trying to wrestle the axe free, and decided it was going to be quicker and safer just to pistol-whip him before anyone got hurt. John adjusted his grip on Winona and tried to get their ambusher with his pulse pistol's butt.
The man was so distracted by his struggle to pry the fire axe loose that Jamie caught him in a surprise tackle. He sprawled onto the ground in a mass of ungainly limbs, the wind temporarily knocked out of him. Of course, now that he was so close, Jamie could probably smell the guy. It was like he hadn't showered in days, even though it was only supposed to be a scant 12 hours or less since the station had stopped sending messages to the surface.
The man's face was covered in a wild, bushy beard; his hair and blue jumpsuit were unkempt. And he was still screeching something about tests before John piled on, grabbed the axe, and struck him with a pistol butt.
Abruptly, the man went limp. He was unconscious... but for how long?
Well, it wasn't the most pleasant smell, but Jamie was originally from a time where bathing was rather less common - so apart from a faint nose-wrinkling when he gets a whiff of it, he didn't appear to be too bothered.
"Och, that was close," he said, flipping open the catch to his sporran and beginning to rummage around while keeping one eye on the crewman. "I think I may have a wee bit of rope in here somewhere. If we can keep him from running once he comes to maybe we can...ah!"
He pulled out a small length of rope triumphantly, then continued. "Maybe we can get him to calm down long enough to make some sort of sense. Or at least stop him from trying to split your head open."
Because, honestly, he had very little doubt that there was going to be any talking going on while the man was wielding an axe, for heavens sake.
"Oh! There's a datapad in the office that was on, but I'd not gotten a good look at it before he tried to brain ye. A Doctor Abel looks to have written it. That might help, too." He looked at the rope, then to the crewman, pulling on his lower lip with his teeth while he thought. Question is, was John any better than he is at tying knots? Should he let him take care of that part of things? After a moment, he glanced back up.
Well, that worked somehow. John leaned back on his knees, wiping his forehead and blowing out a breath. Now that he wasn't trying to play dodgeball with an axe, he couldn't help but focus on the...smell. It was so strong it was The Smell, all caps, and he couldn't help crinkling his nose and trying to block it with his arm. That was pretty rank.
And he wasn't going to as just what Jamie was doing with rope in that pouch of his.
"How about you get it? I'll get our friend set up." John reached down to haul the unconscious man up, looking for somewhere to put him and deciding that the medical chairs probably weren't the best idea, what with how he'd been hollering his head off about "tests". He dragged him to the wall and sat him down, making sure to move whatever he could so the guy couldn't bolt awake and try to brain himself on any sharp corners.
"Aye," replied Jamie, thrusting the rope at John before he headed out. It's not a very large piece of rope, only really large enough to tie someone's hands together. Apparently it's been used for a wee bit of practice with fashioning knots, as a couple of them have already been tied into the cord. They're functional, but fairly simplistic in nature.
It's probably for the best John got the 'securing the crewman' duty.
In the meantime, Jamie made had way back to the small alcove, going to retrieve the data-pad he had noticed earlier but left behind in his haste to get to the fight. Luckily, it was easy enough to find again with the screen lit up, and he grabbed it, this time taking the time to read it before going back to when John was taking the unconscious crewman.
The man showed no signs of immediately regaining his fight, so he didn't offer much resistance at being tied up. He did, however, moan a little as he was moved.
The report was filled with excited (well, as excited as scientists trying to be professional got, anyway) descriptions of the sea life around the station, particularly centered in the nearby deep sea trench. There were photos -- many, many photos -- and also an additional section on crew health, added almost as afterthought. It was unclear if the report itself was written by this Dr. Abel, but it was his signature signing off on it at the bottom.
Well, looked like Sunshine wasn't gonna wake up anytime soon. Maybe he'd hit him too hard?
John got to his feet as Jamie wandered over with the datapad, throwing a glance back at their prisoner before he checked out their haul. It looked like the typical B Movie science technobabble -- and he was saying this as a scientist (his field wasn't exactly marine anything) -- and he almost missed the part at the end. Something about the crew. Physicals or mental health checkups or whatever. John motioned for Jamie to cycle back to that.
If there was something in the health checkup results that was out of the ordinary, it was difficult for a non-doctor to tell, since most of the information consisted of a string of readings, measurements, and scan results. However, a small addendum was included for one crewman, who had apparently been bitten by one of the lifeforms brought back as a specimen.
While Jamie's eyes glazed over a bit at some of the readings - he's no doctor either - they do fix on the addendum, and the mention of possible military applications. A faint frown appears. Weren't these people supposed to be on some sort of a survey mission? Was that what they were looking for?
"Look, I say we take this back with us and show the others. It could be useful."
And maybe one of them will be able to decipher the readings and such to see if there's anything odd about those. As long as John doesn't raise any objections, he can store the datapad in his sporran for now, at least until they have a chance to meet up with the others.
He glances over at the unconscious crewman, who still seems to be out cold, lips pursing. "I don't suppose you've something that we can use to wake him up any time soon? Might be as he's calmed down some now."
John had no problems with Jamie's plan. It was logical. John liked simple and logical. Less likely to go wrong if they did the right thing and reported this instead of thinking they could play heroes and solve this themselves.
He threw a glance at Sunshine.
"Slap him awake? But honestly, it's probably better he wakes up on his own terms. If we're over him like that, it'll probably set him off."
Or that was what any normal person would do. Any normal, freaking out person. John thought he could empathize, except for the part where you started taking axes to people.
No smelling salts, then. John had a point, though. If they were crowding him when he did wake up, there was a good chance he'd go right back to trying to kill them again.
Granted, if John was half-way decent with knots then that'd not be a problem. But Jamie had no idea if he was or not. For all he knew, the crewmember would be able to get free easily - but he did think, at least, there'd be some warning if he did, given how much the man had been babbling about not wanting those tests. He wasn't too worried.
"Aye," he said, slipping the datapad into his sporran for the moment. "I suppose we've not got much else to do but wait." He moved over to the plastic sheeting the crewman had been hiding behind, reaching a hand out to push it out of the way.
Behind the plastic sheeting, there was... well, a sort of rat's nest of collected papers, taped up all over the walls. Some of them were old status reports, scribbled over with paranoid ramblings and childishly scrawled drawings.
There were drawings that looked suspiciously like that organism Erhart had peeled off of the dead crewman in Crew Quarters. There were looming, black, indistinct figures menacing smaller human ones. Even one almost entirely blackened picture that seemed to depict some kind of abyss, only offset by a few small, frail figures shunted off to the side.
"That's not at all creepy," John grunted. "So Van Gogh here ran into critters."
Of course it was critters. It was always critters. Why'd it have to be snakescritters?
He reached down to collect the drawings. Like the datapad, they should probably should this and their prisoner to the others and see what they had to say. Jamie at least wasn't freaking on him, which he had to say was pretty nice because he could use someone who was chill about weird stuff like this happening.
Out of the corner of his eye he caught Jamie heading toward them with what looked like a big knife in his hand. While it was nice to have some backup, somehow he didn't think a Scot waving around a damn weapon was going to make this guy back down. John aimed Winona at his attacker as he weaved around the chair, hoping he'd fall for the bluff. Winona didn't have to work, but she did look like she meant business.
"Stand down! We're here to help, okay?" Good going, Crichton. Nice job sounding all-business. He sounded more in charge than he felt, even as he kept a nervous eye on the fire axe.
Reply
"I'm not going to let you!" he screeched, straining to pry the axe loose again. "I'm not gonna let you do your tests!"
Reply
With a grimace, Jamie shoved the knife back in its sheath and ran full-tilt across the room to leap at the man and, with luck, knock him to the ground and hold him there long enough to find some way to subdue him.
Good luck with that part of things, John.
Reply
John had no choice but to go for the axe while Jamie decided to go full-on NFL on the crewman. He threw his own weight at the guy, debated at trying to wrestle the axe free, and decided it was going to be quicker and safer just to pistol-whip him before anyone got hurt. John adjusted his grip on Winona and tried to get their ambusher with his pulse pistol's butt.
Reply
The man's face was covered in a wild, bushy beard; his hair and blue jumpsuit were unkempt. And he was still screeching something about tests before John piled on, grabbed the axe, and struck him with a pistol butt.
Abruptly, the man went limp. He was unconscious... but for how long?
Reply
"Och, that was close," he said, flipping open the catch to his sporran and beginning to rummage around while keeping one eye on the crewman. "I think I may have a wee bit of rope in here somewhere. If we can keep him from running once he comes to maybe we can...ah!"
He pulled out a small length of rope triumphantly, then continued. "Maybe we can get him to calm down long enough to make some sort of sense. Or at least stop him from trying to split your head open."
Because, honestly, he had very little doubt that there was going to be any talking going on while the man was wielding an axe, for heavens sake.
"Oh! There's a datapad in the office that was on, but I'd not gotten a good look at it before he tried to brain ye. A Doctor Abel looks to have written it. That might help, too." He looked at the rope, then to the crewman, pulling on his lower lip with his teeth while he thought. Question is, was John any better than he is at tying knots? Should he let him take care of that part of things? After a moment, he glanced back up.
"Do ye want to get it or should I?"
Reply
And he wasn't going to as just what Jamie was doing with rope in that pouch of his.
"How about you get it? I'll get our friend set up." John reached down to haul the unconscious man up, looking for somewhere to put him and deciding that the medical chairs probably weren't the best idea, what with how he'd been hollering his head off about "tests". He dragged him to the wall and sat him down, making sure to move whatever he could so the guy couldn't bolt awake and try to brain himself on any sharp corners.
Reply
It's probably for the best John got the 'securing the crewman' duty.
In the meantime, Jamie made had way back to the small alcove, going to retrieve the data-pad he had noticed earlier but left behind in his haste to get to the fight. Luckily, it was easy enough to find again with the screen lit up, and he grabbed it, this time taking the time to read it before going back to when John was taking the unconscious crewman.
Reply
The report was filled with excited (well, as excited as scientists trying to be professional got, anyway) descriptions of the sea life around the station, particularly centered in the nearby deep sea trench. There were photos -- many, many photos -- and also an additional section on crew health, added almost as afterthought. It was unclear if the report itself was written by this Dr. Abel, but it was his signature signing off on it at the bottom.
Reply
John got to his feet as Jamie wandered over with the datapad, throwing a glance back at their prisoner before he checked out their haul. It looked like the typical B Movie science technobabble -- and he was saying this as a scientist (his field wasn't exactly marine anything) -- and he almost missed the part at the end. Something about the crew. Physicals or mental health checkups or whatever. John motioned for Jamie to cycle back to that.
Reply
If there was something in the health checkup results that was out of the ordinary, it was difficult for a non-doctor to tell, since most of the information consisted of a string of readings, measurements, and scan results. However, a small addendum was included for one crewman, who had apparently been bitten by one of the lifeforms brought back as a specimen.
Fascinating findings. Should classify.
and then, just below that:
Milit. applications?
Reply
"Look, I say we take this back with us and show the others. It could be useful."
And maybe one of them will be able to decipher the readings and such to see if there's anything odd about those. As long as John doesn't raise any objections, he can store the datapad in his sporran for now, at least until they have a chance to meet up with the others.
He glances over at the unconscious crewman, who still seems to be out cold, lips pursing. "I don't suppose you've something that we can use to wake him up any time soon? Might be as he's calmed down some now."
Reply
He threw a glance at Sunshine.
"Slap him awake? But honestly, it's probably better he wakes up on his own terms. If we're over him like that, it'll probably set him off."
Or that was what any normal person would do. Any normal, freaking out person. John thought he could empathize, except for the part where you started taking axes to people.
Reply
Granted, if John was half-way decent with knots then that'd not be a problem. But Jamie had no idea if he was or not. For all he knew, the crewmember would be able to get free easily - but he did think, at least, there'd be some warning if he did, given how much the man had been babbling about not wanting those tests. He wasn't too worried.
"Aye," he said, slipping the datapad into his sporran for the moment. "I suppose we've not got much else to do but wait." He moved over to the plastic sheeting the crewman had been hiding behind, reaching a hand out to push it out of the way.
"Might as well see what's behind this, then."
Reply
There were drawings that looked suspiciously like that organism Erhart had peeled off of the dead crewman in Crew Quarters. There were looming, black, indistinct figures menacing smaller human ones. Even one almost entirely blackened picture that seemed to depict some kind of abyss, only offset by a few small, frail figures shunted off to the side.
They probably all belonged to Sunshine.
Reply
Of course it was critters. It was always critters. Why'd it have to be snakescritters?
He reached down to collect the drawings. Like the datapad, they should probably should this and their prisoner to the others and see what they had to say. Jamie at least wasn't freaking on him, which he had to say was pretty nice because he could use someone who was chill about weird stuff like this happening.
Reply
Leave a comment